Nathan Outlaw reveals plans for Outlaw’s Guesthouse

Chef Nathan Outlaw has detailed plans to reopen the Stargazy Inn as Outlaw’s Guesthouse later this year, adding accommodation to his business’s offering in Port Isaac.

“We’re not opening a restaurant, it’s literally just a guesthouse. We’ve got two restaurants in Port Isaac, it would be overkill for me to have three restaurants in one little village,” he told The Caterer.

“We’ve been running the restaurant for nearly 20 years and it’s always been that missing part of what we do. Within Cornwall there are so many great restaurants with accommodation – there’s definitely a demand in the market.”

It was announced earlier this week that David and Jackie Barnard had sold the nine-bedroom venue to Outlaw and his wife Rachel off a guide price of £1.85m for the freehold.

Outlaw said the plan was to offer a two-night package priced from around £600 for two nights’ stay and dinner in Outlaw’s New Road one night and the other at Fish Kitchen, with freshly baked Cornish cream tea on arrival. They hope to relaunch the guesthouse in mid-April or early May.

The site, which has been closed since late last year, will be redecorated ahead of reopening, with plans to fully redesign each of the bedrooms in a couple of years, and possibly add four or five more rooms.

“It will be an organic. As we make a bit of money, we’ll spend a bit of money, as opposed to borrowing lots, because it’s probably not the most sensible thing to be doing in the current climate when nobody really knows what’s going to happen,” said Outlaw.

“We were lucky and fortunately in a position [to buy it]. We saved our pennies from what we’ve been doing over the last six or seven years… when I looked at it before, I was never in a position to do that. We were in a different stage of our careers and lives.”

Outlaw said he and Rachel plan to be very hands-on, however they are recruiting for a manager for the Guesthouse and the chef will continue working at his other two restaurants, doing breakfast at the Guesthouse and lunch at the restaurants.

“I’m very lucky – the two head chefs in the other restaurants have been with me a long time and they’re quite happy to crack on with that, allowing me to do the breakfasts and get the guesthouse right,” said Outlaw. “It’s going to be a bit mad, but that’s the way I like it.”

However, he said further expansion of the business was not on the cards: “Restaurants-wise I think I’ve got enough on my plate; two restaurants and a guesthouse are plenty for me to get on with.”